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Thursday, 11 October 2012

My very first blog is some kind of milestone, I guess, and it
seems right to look back over the last three years since I gave up the day job
and started writing seriously.It has
been an extraordinary journey.You hear
people talk of a steep learning curve – well, entering the world of writing has
been one of the steepest I’ve ever encountered.Precipitous even.Not that I’m
falling over the cliff – not yet at least – but sometimes I feel I‘m hanging on
with just two fingers.

When I had my first Regency romance accepted by Harlequin I had no
idea of the publication process.Years
ago in my youth I worked in the sales department of a West End publishers but I
never entered the hallows of the editorial department – publishing was very hierarchical
then and people from sales were seen as only marginally more acceptable than
those from publicity!So when I began
working with an editor for the first time, I came to it as a complete
novice.I was happy to take her advice
and suggestions (all of them resulted in a far better book) but I still found
it hard to mould my writing to a particular audience’s tastes.Or in other words, to think
commercially.There were things I didn’t
like - having my title changed, being given a cover which in my opinion didn’t
reflect the book, having my punctuation altered by a copy editor.But I knew that if I wanted to write to be
published, I must live with it.In any
case, there were other aspects which were thoroughly enjoyable – meeting people
online who shared my interest, attending stimulating conferences, being taken
out to lunch by my editor!

Publication was just the first step on the road and a whole load
of learning was to follow: how to read a contract (no, I’ve never managed this
one), how to understand royalty statements, signing up for PLR (Public Lending
Rights) and ALCS (fees for photocopying your work).Then I needed a website and stuff to put on
it (Google loves content apparently) and a way of gathering statistics for how
it was being used.

And then there was all the other social media: facebook and
twitter and linked-in and a hundred other things, including a blog, that I
should be able to manage.I have to
confess it hasn’t come easily but when I self-published my Victorian mystery
novel, Walking Through Glass, I knew
it was essential.Self-publishing, of
course, is whole other learning curve. If you’re not technically adept, and I’m not,
formatting a book for Kindle becomes a monumental task.But I managed it and more recently my
confidence level has risen sufficiently to design my own cover – and leave me pleased
with the result!

The latest step on the curve is preparing a ms for an American
epublisher and right now I’m knee deep in different punctuation and different
spelling.That’s simply the mechanics
but there’s also a cultural divide to jump because I’m learning too that some ideas
just don’t translate well.I describe my
Regency hero in this book as having a lazy charm or lounging lazily against the
wall.For a British romance reader that
would be an attractive image, at least I’m guessing so, but for an American
audience ‘lazy’ has negative connotations, ‘not an attractive quality’, the editor
has said. And so the learning
continues…..

1 comment:

Well done Isabelle. I enjoyed your blog. There are many very good bloggers on BRF from whom you can take inspiration. Don't emulate me! I started mine in 2008. Posted a few pics and then stopped until 2011! Even now I am unlikely to post more than once or twice a month. You've reminded me - I'll try and write one tomorrow! Gilli (chewing her pencil)